"I am the true vine, and my Father is,the vinedresser." John 15:1

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit." John 15:1-2

In this scripture Jesus states who he is. He is the true vine! And his Father is the vinedresser.
Do we really believe this?
You see as people meet, there are those who bear much fruit and there are those who don't bear any.
Those who do bear much fruit will be known by their fruit. They will have the love of Christ in them and they will want to do what the Lord asks of them.
Plus they will be pruned! Tribulation, discipline and hated by the world. That constitutes pruning.
Do we think pruning is a comfortable thing? No, it is painful, but in the end it will produce more fruit.
You see when God prunes it is the process of sanctification. A purging of all that is not good being replaced with all of God's goodness. In turn we will be more zealous for His works.
As individuals this will become a daily issue.

In verse 5 Jesus states again; "I am the vine; you are the branches." John 15:5

This is the church! Jesus is the vine and the church is the branches! We are all apart of the vine, and that includes the leaders ie. pastors, elders, and deacons.
We are all a branch attached to the vine.
What seems to be happening in the body is the vine is too full of branches and not enough fruit.
How many mega churches are there in the U.S.?
You see the goal of many "pastors" is to grow, grow, grow! Which means bigger buildings for all of the branches be in.
Yet God is in the process of pruning his church. With so many branches in the body, where is all of the fruit. It seems not much fruit is being produced.
A fruit tree needs to be pruned in order to be more healthy. In turn the branches that are left over end up producing more quality fruit.
Quanity is not always the way. Quality good fruit producing branches do more good than lots of old dead looking branches that can't hold anything.
The pruning going on in the body of Christ right now is being done by the Lord as He is changing the way the body meets.
He is changing the way we evangelize.
He is bringing us back into the confines of what He laid out in scripture.

He is gathering all of the old branches and burning them, because they aren't bearing fruit.
Those that are left will be able to produce more quality fruit.
Contrary to popular belief, it is not about the numbers!
God is not a numbers God, if he was then He wouldn't have picked Israel. He chooses the foolish things of the world to despise the wise.
He uses the small Gideon army to take on the enemy.
He is pruning all of the bad branches, ie. mega churches and bringing the body back into reality!
The road is narrow!
What is the end of all of this?

"By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples." John 15:8
True fruit prove to be his disciples!

To be right with God has often meant to be in trouble with men" A. W. Tozer

"My soul, wait silently for God alone. For my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory; The rock of my strength. And my refuge, is in God. Trust in Him at all times you people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us." Psalm 62:5-8

I love the quote of A.W. Tozer as it is definately a true statement.
We will be despised by men for our belief and trust in the Lord. Yet we are not on this earth to please men.
Those who are truly saved believers in Christ are on this earth to please God our creator and our saviour.
That is why I love the above scripture as it is what I want for my life in Christ while walking on this earth.
What we say has no backing unless it is from the Lord. He is our rock, defense, salvation, glory, refuge and salvation!
Pour out your heart before Him!

An excerpt from Spiritual Authority...

I have been laying off the blog a lot lately. My comments and thoughts have mostly been posted on my facebook page.
I have so much in my heart to talk about and blog yet I haven't taken the time to really sit down and put it on here.
Today I just happened to pick up the book Spiritual Authority, by: Watchman Nee. Love him or not he has lots of great insight into the work of the Lord.
Though not many have ever heard of his writings. I would highly recommend most of his books.

Anyway I happened to turn to a page in his book that I had marked a while back and this is some of what I read.

"God does not look at how fervently we preach the gospel or how willingly we suffer for Him; He looks to see how obedient we are. God's kingdom begins when there is an absolute obedience to God-no voicing of opinion, no presenting of reasonings, no murmuring, no reviling.......Although God has His first-born Son who is the first-fruit of obedience, He is waiting for His many sons to be like the First-born. Wherever there is a church on this earth which truly obeys God's authority, there is testimony of the kingdom and there Satan is defeated."

Nee continues by saying, "Satan is not afraid of our work so long as we act on principly of rebellion. He only laughs in secret when we do things according to our own thoughts."

Our works should be the works of God and His will. What we have as opinions should not usurp the word of God. We should be willing to hear each other out only as it pertains to bringing glory to the kingdom of God.
Why should we continue to express ourselves openly in a negative light in front of the whole world?
If we were truly following the Lord's word which is confirmed to and in us by the Holy Spirit then shouldn't we be wanting to help one another?
I am asking these as a question.
I am and have been hungry for a mighty move of the Holy Spirit.
I still believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit for today.
What are we to do without the Helper?
Nothing, because left to ourselves we become worthless rags. Isaiah talks about our righteousness is as filthy rags.
Let knowledge pass away, but love endures forever.
Praise God for His word and for His Word!
Use them wisely!